Senate Speaker Ken Lusaka reads charges which got Governor Mike Sonko impeached

Senate Speaker Ken Lusaka on Wednesday chaired a special sitting of the Senate which is currently on recess.

The sitting was convened to discuss the impeachment of Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko which was notified in writing to the Senate on Thursday last week.

Speaker Lusaka read the three main charges against the impeached governor as:-

A. Gross violation of the Constitution or any other law where the County Government Act 2012, the Public Procurement and Disposal Act 2015 and the Public Finance Management Act 2012 were cited.

B. Abuse of office

C. Gross misconduct

Charges which led to Governor Sonko impeachment

The particulars of the charges on gross violation of the law included illegal use of grants given by the National Government, poor management of health services during the pandemic and refusal to release funds to the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) in accordance with the deed of transfer.

Corruption charges being tried in the High Court also featured prominently.

Governor Sonko was further accused of undermining the authority of the county assembly, irregular procurement processes and dual allocation of roles to a single officer.

Some of the charges read against the governor on abuse of office and gross misconduct caused the Senators to break out in laughter.

"The governor has persistently intimidated, harassed and molested officers of the county executive including blackmailing his CECM with one-year contracts whose renewal he has undertaken arbitrarily.

"He unlawfully used public funds to pay for his daughter's travel to New York, USA to allegedly attend the county first ladies conference held during the 62nd session of the commission of women in 2018," Speaker Lusaka read.

He added: "The governor is on record admitting that he was intoxicated and thus not in the right frame of mind when he signed the deed of transfer for the transfer of certain county functions to the national government in February 2020."

Constant absence from his office and his official phone line even before the courts barred him was also mentioned as a charge against the governor.

Speaker Lusaka set Thursday and Friday next week as dates for the plenary to probe Governor Sonko impeachment.